Random Posts

Play Live Blitz

YOU CAN PLAY LIVE BLITZ GAMES ON CHESSBASE FROM MY BOOK REVIEW PAGE! Just click on Play Blitz under the board.

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Evgeny Ruban, A Hooligan Who Was Stripped of His Master Title

You probably never heard of Evgeny Ruban (1941-1997). A very strong
player from Siberia, he was never allowed to travel outside of the
Soviet Union, but wherever he was exiled to, Chita, Kostroma or
Volkovyssk, he was the city champion. As a homosexual, he was
charged withhooliganism which was later upgraded to hooliganism with
extreme cynicism. He was stripped of his Master title and reduced to
the title of Candidate Master of Sport and even had his picture
removed from the Chigorin Chess Club in St. Petersburg. But, he was
in good company; Korchnoi's photo disappeared in 1976. Only a
handful of Ruban's early games have survived. In 1959 at the national youth team championship in Riga, Ruban played
on board two for Belorussia, when he kicked off the team because of a
conflict with his coaches; staying out late at night and independent
behavior were a violation of the sporting regime, a term that usually
meant drunkenness or an unacceptable level of individualism. As a
result, he was disqualified for a year. That event wasn't the last;
many more were to come. Physically he looked “Jewish” which was disadvantage. He
maintained that his parents were Ukrainian and when he moved to Minsk
he asked the Soviet Master Albert Kapengut's father, a historian,
about the possibility of joining majoring in history. Kapengut's
father, thinking Ruban was Jewish, mentioned the possible
difficulties of getting in and Ruban quickly told him, “You know,
I'm a Russian.” It didn't matter though because Ruban was drafted
into the army. He played a lot chess in army tournaments, but still
was not a master. After the army, he arrived in Leningrad in 1965 where he lived for
six years. There he entered the university to study philosophy. And
that's when his chess talent blossomed. He won the quarter-final of
the city championship, made the master norm in the semi-final and
became city champion in the final. His trademark was that he always
played in a suit. He was viewed as being smart, self-disciplined and
solemn, but at the same time sarcastic, caustic and cynical. GM
Sosonko, who knew him at that time, wrote that he didn't like him at
all. Sosonko wrote that after winning the Leningrad Championship,
Ruban became more self-assured, but also more arrogant because he
thought he was a “star.” Sosonko described how Ruban whould show
up at the chess club all dressed up wearing a bow tie. In those days
few men wore beards, but Ruban was an exception. During games he
would often smile to himself and stroke his beard. Sosonko also
wrote, “He could wound you for any reason and consciously pick at
the wound. All this with a nice smile.” Ruban was always short on money. He lived in a student dormitory
on a monthly stipend so small that it was of impossible to survive on
it and he occasionally made a little money from chess. Kapengut
recalled playing in a tournament against Ruban in 1965 in Vilnius
where they gave out food vouchers and Ruban exchanged his for cash
and lived on yogurt and a roll. Ruban spent what little money he had
on books, especially on philosophy, but he would read anything and
was rarely without a book. While a student he had already started drinking and at the Chigorin
Club's team championship which took place on Sundays he would arrive
for his game still under the influence from his partying on Saturday
and into Sunday morining. Team members would get him a beer...a
littler hair of the dog that had bitten him. Even when drinking, he was still very strong. In the semi-final of
the 1966 Soviet Championship Ruban arrived after binge drinking and
lost his first four games, but in the end shared fourth place,
missing qualification for the final by only half a point. In 1967 at Rostov-on-Don he played in a tournament for young masters
which was his first really strong event. There he finished with a
plus 2 score and handed the eventual winner Vladimir Tukmakov his
only defeat. Ruban had a classical style and as excellent knowledge of the
openings and his play was characterized by his ability to exploit the
initiative well and play logical, positional chess. He also had a
fairly good endgame technique. In the 1960s he learned a lot from
the famous Soviet GM Isaac Boleslavsky. Strong players often
gathered at Boleslavsky's house to discuss theory and research
openings. He obtained his degree in 1970 and was accepted as a postgraduate
student. That's when his troubles really started. One day in
Leningrad in a small public park he met a young factory worker,
shared some vodka and cheese and Ruban offered the young man money
for sex. The young man agreed and visitors saw them. Some visitors
intervened and a disturbance broke out, police were called and the
two were arrested. The story about what happened in the police van
isn't clear. One version is that Ruban offered the police sex if
they were let go. Another version is that the young man demanded his
payment, but Ruban refused claiming they'd been interrupted and the
act have never been brought to fruition. His suggestion was that the
young man collect his money from the police. The outcome of the matter was that the young man, blaming it on the
vodka, showed remorse and promised he'd never do anything like that
again; he was released on bail. Ruban, on the other hand, got
involed in a philosophical discussion with the investigators about
Socrates and the tolerant attitude towards homosexuals in the upper
echelons of ancient Greek society, quoted Plato and gave Leonardo da
Vinci and Marcel Proust as examples. The investigators weren't
impressed and he was refused bail and went to court charged with
hooliganism. In court Ruban talked about a professor who had introduced him to gay
sex when he was in dire financial straits , and how he didn't regret
it because it had showed him who he really was. He refused to admit
he was guilty of anything and his final statement was that he was
grateful to the Soviet court that was sending him to a camp because
people like him were needed there. The court threw the book at
him...four years for hooliganism committed with extreme cynicism. He was released early and exiled. When his sentence ended he
returned to Belorussia and resumed tournament play. It was at that
time that he was stripped of his master title. At the championship
of Belorussia he finished first by a half point, but awarding him the
titled created a controversy. It was finally determined that a
pederast wouldn't be a fitting champion and the title was awarded to
the runner up. Ruban sent a request to Leningrad for the federation of the city
where he had been champion to
support a petition to restore his master title. At a committee
meeting to determine what should be done the problem was solved when
the director of the Chigorin Chess Club waded up the request and
threw it in the wastebasket. Ruban wanted to return to Leningrad but
needed a residence permit. He tried to get work as a security guard
in order to get a temporary permit and even looked in to arranging a
fake marriage, but was unsuccessful and had to return to Belorussia.
He never did get his master title restored. As a homosexual and an outcast Ruban found it very difficulty to find
employment but finally got a job as an orderly in a hospital morgue
and finally found work as a lighting technician in a drama theater.
He told a few acquaintances that he had written a play; some say he
wrote crime novels. Being a convicted homosexual meant he could have
no close friends because close association with such a person would
stigmatize the other person, too, and bring them under suspicion. In the 1970s he was again convicted and sentenced and exiled. Upon
his return he worked for a while as an instructor in the chess club,
but was soon fired for drunkenness. He didn't leave the club though.
He still hung out there reading library books on philosophy, art and
crime novels. All the young players admired his knowledge of
philosophy and literature. Sitting around in a shabby suit he always
willing to accept a small gift, he drank every day and often didn't
eat. All this left him emotionally disturbed and sometimes out of
control. One time at a chess club he created a disturbance and
shouted obscenities at a master who had been involved in his
disqualification back in 1959. By the end of the 1980s he was scruffy, filthy and completely broken
down. He lived in poverty with his elderly mother in her small
apartment where they survived on her small pension. After getting
drunk, he was hit by a car and taken to a hospital where he remained
in critical condition for two weeks before beginning to recover; but
then he suddenly died. His mother couldn't afford to pay for his
funeral and it was paid for by the woman who had hit him. Almost
nobody came to his funeral. The place where he was buried doesn't
even have a name; locals just call it “the cemetery.” There is
just a plaque with his name on it.